The whole thing will constantly rotate as long as the engine is running. Stepping down from idle of around 950 rpm to +/- 10 rpm at the large gear, which is mounted to a bushed assembly that is locked in location on the shaft, but not locked to the rotation of the shaft until a coupling (similar to the new transmission dog clutch) is engaged. So when in forward motion, the rusty chain sprocket you see on the end of that shaft (tied to the rear wheel with a drive chain) will spin clockwise, while the large gear on the same shaft spins counter-clockwise.

Thanks, allâ€¦ Iâ€™m glad the aesthetic of the reverse gear is being received so well. Iâ€™m hoping for that part to be really cool to watch in action and a fitting bit of metropolis-ness. Iâ€™ve already had fun just spinning it and checking out the different speeds of rotation going on.

And fc, you are a true gentleman and now it is I who am in awe. I havenâ€™t even seen it in person yet and Iâ€™m already in love with the flypress. Itâ€™s a gorgeous little bit of industrial art. And thatâ€™s a mighty looking arbor press, too. Iâ€™m happy happy that you saved them to work another day. Karine and I have already been making plans for dies and tooling. Very cool to learn that the entire ram could be changed and not just the tooling.... nice. Weâ€™ve been working full tilt this week on a couple of jobs, including a garden arbor for install later this week so weâ€™ll see you then for sure.

The reverse gear is installed! Right in front of the right side, rear wheel... sort of hidden a bit but worth the effort to check it out. I had to place a halogen on it as a spot light since it was sort of dark for a video in the shop. Iâ€™ll take some good photos when I get it out in the sunlight again.

First youâ€™ll hear the engine start up, then lower to idle, then the engine is engaged to the flywheel and the spinnies start doing their thang.

Lots of loose ends have been tied up the past few weeks. The tailights are in place and the lighting plans are becoming more firm. The battery is now wired in with heavy gauge cable, and the alternator is wired in and puts out the juice like a champ. Still gotta wire loom it all, but thatâ€™ll be easy enough. Many other little things like loctite on bolts hereâ€¦ tweaking a connection there. The next big hurdles are plumbing the exhaust into and up the smoke stack, re-pluming the flame effect for sch 80 pipe, and getting the lighting done.

And in other news, speaking previously of photos and such, the secret is out and I must come clean, so I figure why not post it here first. the rumors are true... I have "people" on the inside at the highest levels:

They are in my area. And it has of course been on the Playa -- at least in 2008, I think. The web site seems (to me) a bit tricky to navigate, but it is well worth the effort. Lots of Kinetic Sculpture Racing influence -- they learned to build such wheels from KSR'ers. Yes, I keep harping on KSR -- so much wondermuss overlap with our other Stuff!

I saw their Trike of Death in '07, which I think was the first rig they built, and was pretty impressed. The culvert wheels make for a nice look. I had not seen this vehicle, called the Hennepen Crawler, until just last night, although it looks like they had it on the playa in '08.

I love how you can go to Burning Man, think you've seen every corner of the city and still miss so much stuff.

Not sure, but I suspect the Trike Of Death was built at the Arcata Kinetic Sculpture Lab. There is a large "extended family" of Kinetic Racers and other artists along the coast of Northern California, constantly collaborating in various ways.

The Kinetic Lab in Arcata is the epicenter. The most experienced burner among them is Scott, but Duane is catching up. We are trying to get Ken & June to go.

We took the ol girl for her first real test run the other day. The yard has some decent slope to it in spots and with five people on it performed without issue on all but the steepest rise (+/- 1â€˜ rise in 10â€˜?). Some bit of belt slippage in that part, but I think even this can be cured with tightening up the belts a bit. Otherwise, it did very well. The transmission shifted easily from first to second on the fly. Second gear was pretty fun, actually. Revving it up, Iâ€™m guessing we got all the way up to 6 mph or so.

Let's see.... tightening of belts. My memory is poor. Are you talking V belts? In my experience with animated Christmas decorations, V belts have a lot of friction. I had a 12 foot diameter Christmas decoration Ferris Wheel, driven by a 1/4 HP swamp cooler motor, and I could render it frozen if I tightened the belts too much. Just a though. (And that thought is: roller chains.)

Of course if (My memory....) if you are using a V belt as a clutch... never mind.

I did break down the headlamps the yesterday in fact, and was going to order the Creeâ€™s and optics this week. Iâ€™d gladly reimburse you for them. I think Iâ€™ll still use the original bottom of the lamp and build up some copper for the upper parts. I really liked your idea of affixing them into the copper pipe caps, since I can pretty easily attach that to a large â€œreflectorâ€